The Red Room (H.G.Wells &amp;#150; 1896) and The Darkness Out There (Penelope Lively)

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Introduction

Name: Sam Koprowski Candidate Number: 7393 School: The George Ward School Center Number: 66633 English Coursework- Wider Reading Assessment The two stories covered, The Red Room (H.G.Wells - 1896) and The Darkness Out There (Penelope Lively), Both have their own ways of conveying the darker side of life. The Red Room uses gothic horror and language, while The Darkness Out There uses modern type of language. The main features of a gothic horror story are: * Mansions * Dark passages * Candle lit rooms * Moonlight * Silence * Loneliness * Eerie atmosphere * Ghostly occurrences/characters * Mystery * Strange or missing characters. In a modern horror story the events within the story are often based on everyday occurrences or characters, and therefore more believable. The reader finds this easier to relate to. ...read more.

Middle

She has "...bare brown legs brushing through the grass, polleny summer grass that glinted in the sun." Innocent at the beginning of the story, but at the end of the story she becomes enlightened about the suffering in the world. Kerry is a young boy, probably about the same age as Sandra is. He has "...blacked licked-down hair and slitty eyes." Also, "His chin was explosive with acne; at his middle, his jeans yawned from his T-shirt, showing pale chilly flesh." Kerry is also innocent at the beginning of the story, but at the end of the story he becomes enlightened about the suffering in the world. Mrs. Rutter is an old lady who lives by herself in a cottage. She "...seemed composed of circles, a cottage-loaf of a woman, with a face below which chins collapsed one into another, a creamy smiling pool of a face in which her eyes snapped and darted." ...read more.

Conclusion

The language in this short story is differently structured to The Darkness Out There and the words used are less commonly used today. Words such as "forgathered" and "postulated". Some effective words and phrases that set the tone for a gothic horror feeling are "spiritual terrors", "chilly and dusty" and "draughty subterranean passage". This story begins with comfortable feelings with the sun in a pleasant field, although introduced to Packer's End. The reader is introduced to Packer's End early on in the story as to prepare for something unpleasant later on in the story. The tension increases as the children find out about the wood and Mrs. Rutter. In this short story there is tension in it right from the start, when the young man is describing the three old people. The tension increases even more as the story progresses. H.G.Wells also builds up tension by using words like "hastily" and "dashed". He also uses suspense and the uncomfortable feeling of darkness. ...read more.

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As the man becomes more aware of the shadows, tension rises again, "The shadow in the alcove at the end in particular had that undefinable quality of a presence, that odd suggestion of a lurking, living thing that comes so easily in silence and solitude."

I think this was said in an attempt to scare them off. The writer has used simple similes throughout the story to create suspense. 'It twisted my hand like a snake.' Here the author is trying to create horror images in our minds.

This may be because they are too scared to go anywhere near the room themselves, because know what is there. This also gives HG Wells the opportunity to develop the journey to the Red Room, and he can go on describing other happenings along the way.

In The Ostler the story within a story forms the bulk of the tale, and we do not get to know the other characters, but in The Darkness Out There it does not take up very much of the whole story, and the other characters are the most important.

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And we went off. It was not very ....we cheered I can tell you.' Dot said "goes some more of the bastards.' They were just going to go back home when heard a sort of moaning noise. They went back to see what it was but all they saw was two dead people in front of them.

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